Two Pitas in a Pod
Lunch: Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in Newark, Tuesdays and Fridays in Hoboken. Dinner: Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Hoboken, Thursdays in Jersey City. Times and locations vary; visit twopitasinapod.com or check Facebook and Twitter for updates.

If you needed any proof that gourmet food trucks have arrived in Jersey, how about this: two trucks catered a wedding two weeks ago on Long Beach Island.

In the tony Loveladies neighborhood, of all places.

One truck was the Taco Truck, previously reviewed here, and the other is run by two guys who kicked around different names for their operation before settling on one that reflected their longtime friendship and their food.

“There’s a lot of hype around food trucks, but it’s a lot tougher than people think,” says Athos Kyriakides, co-owner, with Scot Sherwood, of Two Pitas in a Pod.

Between shopping for ingredients, scoring parking spots and doing special events (corporate catering, benefits etc.) the glamorous-sounding lunch truck biz — Be your own boss! Work outside! — can be a grind.

Kyriakides and Sherwood, who grew up in Wayne, started thinking about opening a restaurant a year ago. But leases were prohibitive; how about a truck? The two checked out other trucks, counting traffic at each, before buying their own truck for about $70,000. Two Pitas in a Pod — nicknamed the Pod — opened September 2010 in Hoboken. The owners bounce between Hoboken, Newark and Jersey City for lunch and dinner.

Facebook and Twitter are any gourmet food truck’s best friends; Two Pitas in a Pod may start out one morning expecting to be in one town, and end up in another. Social media to the rescue.

The duo even tweeted Mayor Cory Booker this week: “Hello Sir! Do you ever eat at any Newark Food Trucks? We help bring foot traffic to ze sidewalks of Newark. Stop by some time.”

Watch for daily specials; they may include a truffle burger with shiitake mushrooms, arugula and Swiss, or a Mediterranean version (diced cucumbers, pickled white cabbage, cilantro, chipotle aioli, spicy green sauce) of the Vietnamese sandwich known as banh mi.

There was a time when Kyriakides and Sherwood would drive into the city just to sample the falafel at Mamoun’s on MacDougal Street. “Six dollars for tolls, $2 for the falafel; it didn’t make much business sense,” Kyriakides, 36, cracked.

I haven’t tried Mamoun’s, but the Pod’s take is tops — crispy fried falafel wedged in a pita with white bean hummus, pickled white cabbage, tahini, Israeli salad and chimichurri.

A pilgrimage to the truck wouldn’t be complete without their frites, which come in Classic, Pod (tossed with garlic, parsley, lemon zest and feta) and Truffled (seasoned with truffle salt and served with white truffle aioli) versions.

Kyriakides and Sherwood are thinking of opening a storefront in North Jersey, much as the Taco Truck and qba A Cuban Kitchen have done. In the meantime, they deal with the challenges of going mobile.

One day last winter, snow and ice blocked the way to the truck. The Podsters were out of rock salt. But they had a three-pound bag of kosher salt in the truck. Worked just fine.

“If you told me three years ago I’d be spreading kosher salt on the sidewalk to make a path for our customers,” Kyriakides said, “I would have said you were crazy.”